The San Diego Padres are in advanced sale discussions with a buyer group led by a billionaire who already holds ownership stakes in professional soccer, according to people familiar with the matter. The transaction is expected to value the club north of $2 billion, which would establish a new high-water mark for MLB franchise sales and surpass the $1.5 billion price Steve Cohen paid for the New York Mets in 2020.
The Padres filed preliminary paperwork with Major League Baseball in recent weeks, triggering the league's standard ownership review process. That process typically runs 90 to 120 days and includes financial background checks, interviews with the prospective control person, and a three-quarters vote by the 30 ownership groups. The lead buyer's existing soccer holdings add a wrinkle: MLB has traditionally been cautious about cross-sport portfolios, though the Boston Red Sox ownership's stake in Liverpool and the Toronto Blue Jays' ties to Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment suggest the league is warming to the model when capital is clean and control structures are clear.
The timing is worth noting. Current Padres owner Peter Seidler died in November 2023, leaving control of the franchise to his estate and a collection of Seidler family members who have been expected to pursue a sale. The team spent aggressively under Seidler—payroll peaked near $250 million in 2023—but revenues have not kept pace. The Padres ranked 12th in MLB attendance last season at an average of 35,847 per game, respectable but not enough to support a top-five payroll without outside capital. The new ownership group will inherit a roster with $178 million in committed salary for 2025, including Manny Machado's $30 million annual average through 2033 and Xander Bogaerts' $25.4 million through 2033.
The $2 billion+ price reflects two realities. First, MLB franchise values have climbed steadily as streaming revenue and gambling partnerships expand. The league's national television contracts with ESPN, Fox, and Turner expire after the 2028 season, and early talks suggest a combined renewal in the $2.5 billion to $3 billion annual range, up from roughly $1.9 billion today. Second, San Diego remains one of the sport's rare single-tenant markets with no direct in-market competitor, a demographic base that skews affluent and young, and a downtown ballpark that opened in 2004 and still carries minimal deferred maintenance. The buyer is effectively purchasing scarcity in a growth corridor.
The lead buyer's soccer background will draw attention during the MLB vetting process. European club owners have increasingly used multi-sport portfolios to share infrastructure—analytics platforms, sponsorship inventory, and back-office systems—across properties. The model works when the sports operate on different seasonal calendars and when the owner can demonstrate financial firepower to fund both without cross-collateralizing assets. MLB will want to see independent capital structures and proof that the Padres won't be treated as a secondary asset if the soccer club requires emergency liquidity.
Watch for three follow-on events. First, the formal introduction of the buyer group to the MLB ownership committee, expected within 30 days. Second, any indication that the current Padres front office—led by president of baseball operations A.J. Preller—will remain in place; Preller's contract runs through 2027, but new owners often bring their own operators. Third, movement on the Padres' local media situation. The team has been in flux since the collapse of Diamond Sports Group, which carried Padres games on Bally Sports San Diego. A new ownership group will need to either renegotiate a broadcast deal or accelerate a shift to direct-to-consumer streaming, a format that has shown promise in smaller markets like San Diego where cable penetration is already declining.
The sale process is expected to close before Opening Day 2025, assuming no complications in the league's financial review. The $2 billion+ price will reset expectations for the next round of MLB sales, particularly for franchises in similarly constrained markets like Cleveland and Tampa Bay. The Padres' new owner will enter a league where franchise values have doubled in the past decade but where operating margins remain thinner than the headline numbers suggest. The payroll reset begins immediately.
The takeaway
At **$2B+**, the Padres sale sets a new MLB valuation benchmark and tests the league's willingness to embrace cross-sport ownership models.
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